History WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings / LiveActionTV

* Creator/EvanRachelWood of ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' locked her Twitter account after receiving backlash and threats for her comments about Kobe Bryant, particularly his sexual assault case, on the day of his death.

* Before and during the run of ''Series/BabylonFive'', Creator/JMichaelStraczynski was very active on Usenet, Compuserve & [=GEnie=] forums dedicated to the show, with well over 10,000 posts from 1992 through 1998. Constant harassment by a few fans led him into several ill-advised flamewars. Claudia Christian's departure from the show led to middle-of-the-night phone calls and death threats. He's never been as active online since, though he does have a Facebook fan page now.

* Ginnifer Goodwin was driven off Twitter by rabid ''Series/OnceUponATime'' fans attacking her over her appearance, namely her weight gain in Season 4, which she filmed after she ''had just given birth''. Sean Maguire also admitted he nearly left Twitter due to constant harassment from Emma/Regina slash fans angry that Regina was being paired with his character.

** An older example: the above mentioned Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fans who gained access to the actors, producers and legal department through BNF convention organizer Joan Winston. They interviewed people for books about the show, and were responsible for the first professionally published FanFic anthologies, ''[[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_New_Voyages The New Voyages]]'', which were enthusiastically received by fans.[[note]]This was in the mid- to late 1970s, when there was no ''Star Trek'' on the air, and the reaction to these books proved there was still plenty of public interest in the show and raising hopes for a revival and/or film. Marshak and Culbreath were thus acknowledged as highly important fan liaisons with both the studio and Bantam Books which published the anthologies and their own fanworks.[[/note]] According to [[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_K/S_Fandom_by_David_Gerrold David Gerrold]], Marshak and Culbreath were also deeply into the SlashFic premise (their own novels contain much romantic HoYay between Kirk and Spock, and their fanfic anthologies and nonfiction works were produced with the assistance of Carol Frisbie, the editor of ''[[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Thrust Thrust]]''), the first K/S anthology fanzine). [[note]]Such was their guile at the time that many fans believed they actually viewed Kirk and Spock as simply developing a mental bond and a devoted friendship. Then fan historians revealed they had actually written slash chapters for each of their own fanfic novels, circulating them underground. Those pieces would be worth a fortune today.[[/note]] In [[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Shatner:_Where_No_Man#Gene_Roddenberry_on_Shatner.2C_.26_Kirk interviews for a book on Shatner]], they tried to maneuver Creator/GeneRoddenberry into promoting slash to AscendedFanon.[[note]]Dedicated K/S devotees still quote his mumbled reply as proof that he had personally intended Kirk and Spock to be lovers from the beginning of the series, even though D.C. Fontana and Gerrold have both vehemently denied this.[[/note]] They apparently demanded that K/S should be included in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and "managed to alienate — and offend — 3 publishers, several members of the STAR TREK cast & production crew, & Paramount Pictures legal department." It's theorized that these types of people are the reason why the K/S fandom has such a bad reputation in ''Star Trek'' fandom.

** An older example: the above mentioned Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fans who gained access to the actors, producers and legal department through BNF convention organizer Joan Winston. They interviewed people for books about the show, and published FanFic anthologies. According to [[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_K/S_Fandom_by_David_Gerrold David Gerrold]], Marshak and Culbreath were also deeply into the SlashFic premise (their own novels reflect this, and their fanfic anthologies and nonfiction works were produced with the assistance of Carol Frisbie, the editor of ''[[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Thrust Thrust]]''), the first K/S anthology fanzine). [[note]]Such was their guile at the time that many fans believed they actually viewed Kirk and Spock as simply developing a mental bond and a devoted friendship. Then fan historians revealed they had actually written slash chapters for each of their own fanfic novels, circulating them underground. Those pieces would be worth a fortune today.[[/note]] In [[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Shatner:_Where_No_Man#Gene_Roddenberry_on_Shatner.2C_.26_Kirk interviews for a book on Shatner]], they tried to maneuver Creator/GeneRoddenberry into promoting slash to AscendedFanon.[[note]]Dedicated K/S devotees still quote his mumbled reply as proof that he had personally intended Kirk and Spock to be lovers from the beginning of the series, even though D.C. Fontana and Gerrold have both vehemently denied this.[[/note]] They apparently demanded that K/S should be included in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and "managed to alienate — and offend — 3 publishers, several members of the STAR TREK cast & production crew, & Paramount Pictures legal department." It's theorized that these types of people are the reason why the K/S fandom has such a bad reputation in ''Star Trek'' fandom.

** An older example: the above mentioned Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fans who gained access to the actors, producers and legal department through BNF convention organizer Joan Winston. They interviewed people for books about the show, and published fanfic anthologies. According to [[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_K/S_Fandom_by_David_Gerrold David Gerrold]], Marshak and Culbreath were also deeply into the SlashFic premise (their own novels reflect this). In [[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Shatner:_Where_No_Man#Gene_Roddenberry_on_Shatner.2C_.26_Kirk interviews for a book on Shatner]], they tried to maneuver Creator/GeneRoddenberry into promoting slash to AscendedFanon.[[note]]Dedicated K/S devotees still quote his mumbled reply as proof that he had personally intended Kirk and Spock to be lovers from the beginning of the series, even though D.C. Fontana and Gerrold have both vehemently denied this.[[/note]] They apparently demanded that K/S should be included in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and "managed to alienate — and offend — 3 publishers, several members of the STAR TREK cast & production crew, & Paramount Pictures legal department." It's theorized that these types of people are the reason why the K/S fandom has such a bad reputation in ''Star Trek'' fandom.
** Worse than that, in 2016 [[https://www.facebook.com/david.gerrold/posts/10208615041985846 Gerrold revealed]] that, going on their belief they'd been acknowledged as "authorized experts" on Spock and Vulcans based on Gene Roddenberry's reaction to a thesis they wrote on the subject,[[note]]His reaction was actually closer to "Wow, you certainly put in a lot of work here"[[/note]] Marshak and Culbreath "assumed ownership of the entire K/S phenomenon and proceeded to chase any fan holding a divergent view out of fandom." They did it on the [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Zine fanzine]] by creating SockPuppet accounts that essentially bullied other fans that dared to have another interpretation of Kirk and Spock's relationship and what the fandom was about. To quote Gerrold, "Their behavior was simply unfannish. They were working out their own issues on the body of fandom and they hurt a lot of other fans in the process. They hurt people deliberately and that is villainy, no matter how you try to justify it."

* ''Series/TenaciousD'' had a short-lived messageboard that was moderated by JR Reed, who plays Lee in show. The board climate quickly turned so hostile that he had to record a video asking everyone to calm down. The board didn't last much longer.

** An older example: the above mentioned Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fans who gained access to the actors, producers and legal department through BNF convention organizer Joan Winston. They interviewed people for books about the show, and published fanfic anthologies. According to [[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_K/S_Fandom_by_David_Gerrold David Gerrold]], Marshak and Culbreath were also deeply into the SlashFic premise (their own novels reflect this). In [[http://fanlore.org/wiki/Shatner:_Where_No_Man#Gene_Roddenberry_on_Shatner.2C_.26_Kirk interviews for a book on Shatner]], they tried to maneuver Creator/GeneRoddenberry into promoting slash to AscendedFanon.[[note]]Dedicated K/S devotees still quote his mumbled reply as proof that he had personally intended Kirk and Spock to be lovers from the beginning of the series. D.C. Fontana and Gerrold have both vehemently denied this.[[/note]] They apparently demanded that K/S should be included in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and "managed to alienate — and offend — 3 publishers, several members of the STAR TREK cast & production crew, & Paramount Pictures legal department. These individuals are very probably the main reason why K/S fandom has generated such a tarnished reputation in TREK fandom."
** Worse than that, in 2016 [[https://www.facebook.com/david.gerrold/posts/10208615041985846 Gerrold revealed]] that, going on their belief they'd been acknowledged as "authorized experts" on Spock and Vulcan by Gene Roddenberry, based on his reaction[[note]]basically "Wow, you certainly put in a lot of work here"[[/note]] to a thesis they wrote on the subject, Marshak and Culbreath "assumed ownership of the entire K/S phenomenon and proceeded to chase any fan holding a divergent view out of fandom. They did it in the social media that predated the internet -- the [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Zine fanzine]], they did it by creating [[SockPuppet hoax identities]] that abused and degraded anyone they chose as an enemy.... they were bullying other fans with the idea that their interpretation was the only possible interpretation of who Kirk and Spock really were and what ''Star Trek'' fandom was really about. Their behavior was simply unfannish. They were working out their own issues on the body of fandom and they hurt a lot of other fans in the process. They hurt people deliberately and that is villainy, no matter how you try to justify it."

* In ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' a combination of ill-informed haters, ShippingWars and backlash compelled Creator/LindseyShaw (who plays Paige) to quit social media, attempt suicide and ultimately retire from acting. The FanDumb is strong in this fandom and other actors and the writers have been targets as well, but not to the extreme degrees of harassment that Lindsey had endured. From people calling her 'Pigskin' (a name her romantic 'rival' used to bully and torment her character) or a pig to sending her death threats and encouraging her and her fans to slit their wrists and kill themselves. It got to the point where series regulars couldn't even mention her/her character for fear of being harassed themselves. Creator/ShayMitchell (who plays the main character Emily who is Paige's main romantic interest) went from gushing about their on-screen relationship to barely mentioning her in interviews and at some point Lindsey was even PutOnABus, and her return in the last season was mainly a TakeThatAudience, intended to induce a MyGodWhatHaveIDone in the viewers responsible by showing that Paige really was Emily's OneTrueLove and that their final break up is an ActOfTrueLove It's even lampshaded in the script:

* Creator/DavidSchwimmer from ''Series/Friends'' limited his Instagram comments to only accounts he follows, likely to prevent people from spamming his famous line: "We Were On A Break".

* Creator/DavidSchwimmer from ''Series/Friends limited his Instagram comments to only accounts he follows, likely to prevent people from spamming his famous line: "We Were On A Break".

* ''Series/MrShow'' briefly had an official online messageboard but shut it off because it immediately became infested with hostile trolls.
* When ''Series/TenaciousD'' was airing on Creator/{{HBO}}, they had a short-lived messageboard that was moderated by JR Reed, who pays Lee in show. The board climate quickly turned hostile, to the point that he had a record a video asking everyone to calm down. The board didn't last much longer.

* Creator/StephenAmell used to be more active with fans at cons and on his social media in the early days of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' but has slowed down over the years, largely because of some over zealous RealPersonShipping. Fans of the “Olicity'' pairing have harassed his wife into turning her Instagram private at various points in time. They also found out who his non celebrity ex-wife was and harassed her. Fans have even gone so far as to photoshop Felicity’s actress’s face onto his wife’s in pictures of them and their daughter. He’s called out people for implying his marriage is fake and he’s really in love with his co-star but doesn’t talk about “Olicity” nearly as much as he used to.

** He had already begun to wonder whether he hadn't turned into what he had originally been making fun of when filming a "racial pixie" skit; the pixies in question were caricatures who egged on individuals of various races to act out the stereotypes of their races, and Chappelle played the black pixie, which was an extraordinarily offensive darky archetype that was straight out of a minstrel show. Chappelle was already unsure of whether the skit crossed into bad taste or not, and when a white crew member laughed in a way that Chappelle felt was at him rather than with him, he became extremely uncomfortable and was more or less convinced that the show was not headed anywhere good.

* When Creator/IoanGruffudd first got famous with ''Series/HoratioHornblower'' in the late '90s and early 2000s, he really seemed to be enjoying interaction with fans on-line. He was even paying a considerable sum of money to run a web-page where fans could send him greetings and kudos and he would often reply. Fans were also collecting and preserving rare stuff like videos from his child actor days or various interviews. When he got engaged, supposedly many a fan-girl could not deal, forgetting that CelebrityCrush is supposed to be for fun. They started sending hateful messages directed at his fiance. No wonder Mr Gruffudd refused to pay for that.
* Creator/MasiOka used to play ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', but eventually stopped once several ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' fans figured out his username and wouldn't leave him alone.[[note]]He's also hinted that the game is somewhat addictive for him and that with his schedule, it's just not possible to play the way he wants to - i.e. scheduling raids with friends and guildmembers.[[/note]] He also describes himself as being good at avoiding the Internet, but [[http://m.imdb.com/name/nm1199811/quotes was amused when he found out a fan wanted to keep Hiro as her "pet"]]. He also has a Twitter account, but tends to treat it more as a broadcast than a dialogue, only answering questions during specific "Ask Masi" events.

* Adam Savage, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara of ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' were active on the Discovery-run fan forum, but stopped for various reasons: Grant became fed up with Monday-morning quarterbacks second guessing everything, Kari left in disgust at fanboys making lewd comments (it even resulted in a number of otherwise innocuous words being added to the list to redflag posts for moderator approval) and Adam left after he received death threats over test results, specifically their first ScopeSnipe experiment. Also, when Discovery Communications started leaking out the details for the reboot, fans were quick to jump the gun and criticize the changes made to the series on the official Facebook page, even if some of them were only temporary or inevitable. [[https://www.facebook.com/MythBusters/posts/10154048045118224 Observe]].

** For several decades the owners of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' intellectual property (Creator/{{Paramount}} in its various incarnations) practiced a policy of benign neglect towards fan works, even as WebVideo series like ''WebVideo/StarTrekNewVoyages'' and ''WebVideo/StarTrekContinues'' started to really push the envelope on production values. That all changed in TheNewTens when it became clear that Alec Peters, the lead producer of the ostensible fan film ''[[WebVideo/PreludeToAxanar Star Trek: Axanar]]'', had used money donated through Website/{{Kickstarter}} for the project to line his own pockets and set up a for-profit studio, and Creator/{{CBS}} and Paramount filed suit for copyright infringement in December 2015. In reply to Peters' claims that he didn't realize he was crossing a line because CBS never issued guidelines for fanfilms, CBS did just that in June 2016 when they announced [[http://www.startrek.com/fan-films a set of highly stringent new rules for fan films]] that were essentially the death knell of the higher-quality web series. The case was settled out of court in January 2017 with ''Axanar'' still allowed to proceed, but in a form that is compliant with the new guidelines. The exceptions is that original talent from ''Prelude'' can still appear and no more public fundraising. As of May 2018, the shorts have not appeared.

** When it was announced Creator/ChristopherEccleston would be leaving the revived series, fans took to the then-active Outpost Gallifrey forum in their droves. One well-known superfan then compared Eccleston to a "cockroach" and in doing so, had the entire forum pulled down by its admin for several days.

* Creator/StephenAmell used to be more active with fans at cons and on his social media in the early days of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' but has slowed down over the years. Largely because of some over zealous RealPersonShipping. Fans of “Olicity''(Oliver and Felicity) have harassed his wife into turning her Instagram private. They also found out who his ex-wife (a normal woman with a normal job) was and harassed her. Fans have even gone so far as to photoshop Felicity’s actress’s face onto his wife’s in pictures of them and their daughter. He’s called out people for implying his marriage is fake and he’s really in love with his co-star but doesn’t talk about “Olicity” nearly as much as he used to.

* In ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' a combination of ill-informed haters, ShippingWars and InternetBackdraft compelled Creator/LindseyShaw (who plays Paige) to quit social media, attempt suicide and ultimately retire from acting. The FanDumb is strong in this fandom and other actors and the writers have been targets as well, but not to the extreme degrees of harassment that Lindsey had endured. From people calling her 'Pigskin' (a name her romantic 'rival' used to bully and torment her character) or a pig to sending her death threats and encouraging her and her fans to slit their wrists and kill themselves. It got to the point where series regulars couldn't even mention her/her character for fear of being harassed themselves. Creator/ShayMitchell (who plays the main character Emily who is Paige's main romantic interest) went from gushing about their on-screen relationship to barely mentioning her in interviews and at some point Lindsey was even PutOnABus, and her return in the last season was mainly a TakeThatAudience, intended to induce a MyGodWhatHaveIDone in the viewers responsible by showing that Paige really was Emily's OneTrueLove and that their final break up is an ActOfTrueLove It's even lampshaded in the script:

* Creator/MillieBobbyBrown of ''Series/StrangerThings'' fame deleted her Twitter account due to widespread memes on the site falsely accusing her of homophobia.

* Actor Ruby Rose shut down her Twitter account and severely cut back on her Instagram account due to abuse from fans who thought that she had the wrong gender identity and sexual orientation to play the title character on ''Series/Batwoman2019''.

* Actor Ruby Rose shut down her Twitter account and severely cut back on her Instagram account due to abuse from fans who thought that she had the wrong gender identity and sexual orientation to play the ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'' version of ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}.

* Creator/MillieBobbyBrown of Series/StrangerThings fame deleted her Twitter account due to widespread memes on the site falsely accusing her of homophobia.

* When ''Series/TenaciousD'' was airing on Creator/HBO, they had a short-lived messageboard that was moderated by JR Reed, who pays Lee in show. The board climate quickly turned hostile, to the point that he had a record a video asking everyone to calm down. The board didn't last much longer.

* When Music/TenaciousD's show was airing on Creator/HBO, they had a short-lived messageboard that was moderated by JR Reed, who pays Lee in show. The board climate quickly turned hostile, to the point that he had a record a video asking everyone to calm down. The board didn't last much longer.

* Actor Ruby Rose shut down her Twitter account and severely cut back on her Instagram account due to abuse from fans who thought that she had the wrong gender identity and sexual orientation to play the ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'' version of ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}.

* In ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' a combination of ill-informed haters, ShippingWars and InternetBackdraft compelled Creator/LindseyShaw (who plays Paige) to quit social media, attempt suicide and ultimately retire from acting. The FanDumb is strong in this fandom and other actors and the writers have been targets as well, but not to the extreme degrees of harassment that Lindsey had endured. From people calling her 'Pigskin' (a name her romantic 'rival' used to bully and torment her character) or a pig to sending her death threats and encouraging her and her fans to slit their wrists and kill themselves. It got to the point where series regulars couldn't even mention her/her character for fear of being harassed themselves. Shay Mitchell (who plays the main character Emily who is Paige's main romantic interest) went from gushing about their on-screen relationship to barely mentioning her in interviews and at some point Lindsey was even PutOnABus, and her return in the last season was mainly a TakeThatAudience, intended to induce a MyGodWhatHaveIDone in the viewers responsible by showing that Paige really was Emily's OneTrueLove and that their final break up is an ActOfTrueLove It's even lampshaded in the script:

* In ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' a combination of ill-informed haters, ShippingWars and InternetBackdraft compelled Lindsey Shaw (who plays Paige) to quit social media, attempt suicide and ultimately retire from acting. The FanDumb is strong in this fandom and other actors and the writers have been targets as well, but not to the extreme degrees of harassment that Lindsey had endured. From people calling her 'Pigskin' (a name her romantic 'rival' used to bully and torment her character) or a pig to sending her death threats and encouraging her and her fans to slit their wrists and kill themselves. It got to the point where series regulars couldn't even mention her/her character for fear of being harassed themselves. Shay Mitchell (who plays the main character Emily who is Paige's main romantic interest) went from gushing about their on-screen relationship to barely mentioning her in interviews and at some point Lindsey was even PutOnABus, and her return in the last season was mainly a TakeThatAudience, intended to induce a MyGodWhatHaveIDone in the viewers responsible by showing that Paige really was Emily's OneTrueLove and that their final break up is an ActOfTrueLove It's even lampshaded in the script: